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"I don't mind your calling me 'Bantam,' ..."

Raemaekers, Louis, 1919, Chromolithograph
"I don't mind your calling me 'Bantam,' ..."
"I don't mind your calling me 'Bantam,' ..."
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Category
Library Item
Item no
33446
Title
"I don't mind your calling me 'Bantam,' but if you 'Landsdowne' me again there'll be trouble."
Description
"It is singular how events change the meaning of words. Terms of contempt take upon them a gloss of honour. Names once powerful in arousing respect lose caste and are of no significance. Britain will ever remember her 'Old Contemptibles,' [sic] a name they owe to the slur put upon them by the German War Lord. When England recruited her undersized men, and these diminutive warriors marched through the streets, they were called 'Bantams' half-lovingly, half-derisively. But they proved indeed to be fit comrades of the Gallic cock, and to be a 'Bantam' was to be a soldier of no mean battalion. Lord Landsdowne, inspired by the best motives, but failing in resolution before the terrible trial of prolonged warfare, led a small party which sought a shorter path to peace by the evasion of the necessary preliminary of Victory. M. Raemaekers in his cartoon fives us the soldier's view of Lord Landsdowne's overtures for peace, and at the same time illustrated how a noble name may come to be resented by one who had turned a title of ridicule into one of honour."
Artist / maker
Date
1919
Size
33.2 x 25.4 cm
Location
Art and Design Library
Copyright
Louis Raemaekaers' drawings are reproduced by kind permission of the Louis Raemaekers Foundation.